author: Mathias Zulpo
Venture through the woods in a new third-person survival horror
Through the Woods, a survival horror inspired by Norse mythology and Theodor Kittelsen’s art, is coming to PC this October. And it’s high time you heard about it.
Armed only with your flashlight, you find yourself in the middle of what seems to be an abandoned forest. You know something is coming, but you’re not sure what. And you won’t find out until Through the Woods, an independent survival horror created by Norwegian Antagonist studio and influenced heavily by Norse mythology, launches on PC this October. Here’s what you can expect.
In Through the Woods you will play as a mother who had lost her son and decided to look for him in a totally-not-haunted forest. Not only the woods (actually – a whole island) she had chosen to explore are filled to the brim with Nordic architecture; they also serve as home to giant mountain trolls and many other unimaginable creatures related to Norse mythology (with Ragnarök being the main theme of the entire plot). The feeling of loneliness and “explainable insanity” is what’s supposed to make your journey as uneasy and nightmare-fueling as possible, with heroine losing her mind along the way. Or, as Dan Wakefield, game’s writer would put it, “[she’s starting to realize, that] what's going on is impossible, but it's real all the time.”
The game was built upon Unity Engine and – judging by PAX East demo that you can download right here – looks pretty well at this point, although desperately needs a few performance tweaks (a single GTX 970 can’t quite handle it on highest settings). And even though I’m far from calling the visuals stunning, they definitely have that “twisted and corrput” feeling to them, which is constantly strengthened by ascetic, yet suggestive sound effects, apparently recorded by the devs in a genuine Norwegian forest called Sognsvann (I wonder if they captured that troll growl there, too).
Through the Woods was kickstarted on June 14, 2015, raising almost $45,000. It has since undergone some polishing, and even received a grant of roughly $120,000 form Norwegian Film Institute. Needless to say, the devs used that pocket money to do even more polishing and push the release date to October 2016. It also appeared at PAX Prime 2015, GDC 2016, and PAX East 2016, where it gained a reasonable amount of attention and more-than-satisfying reception.
Although you can’t (yet) preorder it on Steam, you should check out it’s store page every once in a while, for the release date is nearing. The devs already made a promise of delivering something that “feels very convincing”. Let’s just hope it is a promise they can keep.
